https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com
Fri, 18 Nov 2016 11:10:50 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/852ec70dfbfa9356109345da12d91a40?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pnghttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com
Apollo Quartet 5 available for downloadhttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/apollo-quartet-5-available-for-download/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/apollo-quartet-5-available-for-download/#respondFri, 18 Nov 2016 11:00:28 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=492]]>And so here it is, the fifth installment in the Apollo Quartet. Its official title is Coda: A Visit to the National Air and Space Museum. It’s 7,000 words long, approximately, so technically a short story (which means the quartet now comprises all three lengths of fiction – short story, novella and novel). It has an introduction by Adam Roberts, author of The Thing Itself.

Don’t forget the rest of the Apollo Quartet – that would be books one to four – are currently available on Kindle and in paperback at a new low price.

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/apollo-quartet-5-available-for-download/feed/0iansalesx_15Apollo Quartet 5https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/10/12/apollo-quartet-5/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/10/12/apollo-quartet-5/#respondWed, 12 Oct 2016 11:44:59 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=487]]>Yes, I know, a quartet cannot have five books. That would make it a quintet. However, next year at Worldcon75 in Helsinki, the Hugo Awards will be trialling a “best series” Hugo Award. I am not a fan of genre series, especially fantasy ones, and have tried on numerous occasions to read different ones with varying degrees of success. I don’t believe I’ve ever finished one that is longer than a trilogy. It occurred to me if I wrote something new for the Apollo Quartet, a sort of pendant to the four books, a short story perhaps, then the quartet might qualify for this new Hugo category. Of course, I had no illusions about being nominated, never mind winning; but it was a bit of fun and a point worth making, I thought.

So one night, as I lay in bed, I tried to think to think of a story I might use for my “Apollo Quartet 5″… and I had a few ideas… But when I woke the following morning, a completely different idea was there fully-formed in my mind. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised it was perhaps even more of an Apollo Quartet story than the other four, was still completely different to any of them… and yet did everything they did…

And then I looked more closely at the definition for the Best Series Hugo Award, and discovered that, although the length of the work published in 2016 didn’t matter, the whole series had to comprise at least 240,000 words. The Apollo Quartet misses that wordcount by about 150,000 words… Oh well.

But the idea I have for the fifth book is just so good, I’m still going ahead with it.

Obviously, I don’t want to give away too much at this stage… although the title is something of a clue – it’s called Coda: A Visit to the National Air and Space Museum. It will, of course, have a glossary. It has been partly inspired by the works of Paul Park, Augustín Fernández Mallo and James Benning, as well as the Skylab programme, Thomas Stafford’s We Have Capture, and the Salyut space station. It will be published by Whippleshield Books, initially as an ebook and a signed and numbered chapbook limited to 25 copies. I hope to have it available by the end of November. In the New Year, I will put together a paperback edition for sale on the Whippleshield Books website and Amazon.

Finally, a quick note to point out that review copies of Dreams of the Space Age – which contains an original piece of fiction – are still available. Email editor (at) whippleshieldbooks (dot) com if you’re interested in one.

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/10/12/apollo-quartet-5/feed/0iansalesnational_air_and_space_museum_entranceAdrift on the Sea of Rains shortlisted for Spanish SF Awardhttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/adrift-on-the-sea-of-rains-shortlisted-for-spanish-sf-award/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/adrift-on-the-sea-of-rains-shortlisted-for-spanish-sf-award/#respondThu, 05 May 2016 09:45:31 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=481]]>Last year, Adrift on the Sea of Rains appeared as the title story in A la deriva en el mar de las Lluvias y otros relatos, an anthology of English-language science fiction translated into Spanish, edited by Mariano Villarreal (Adrift on the Sea of Rains was translated by Diego de los Santos). A couple of days ago, I learnt that not only was the anthology A la deriva en el mar de las Lluvias y otros relatos shortlisted for the Ignotus Awards, but so too were five of the stories in it – including Adrift on the Sea of Rains. Oh, and the cover art was also shortlisted. For the full Ignotus 2016 shortlists, see here. And congratulations to all the other nominees.

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/adrift-on-the-sea-of-rains-shortlisted-for-spanish-sf-award/feed/0iansalesIgnotusAll That Outer Space Allows Makes Tiptree Award Honor Listhttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/all-that-outer-space-allows-makes-tiptree-award-honor-list/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/all-that-outer-space-allows-makes-tiptree-award-honor-list/#respondSat, 02 Apr 2016 08:41:11 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=478]]>On 1 April, the James Triptree, Jr. Literary Award announced its 2015 Winners, Honor List and Long List. (It was after 12 noon, so we’re safe.) All That Outer Space Allows was one of eleven works selected for the Honor List. The Tiptree Award is presented to works of science fiction or fantasy that explore and expand gender roles. The judges this year were Heather Whipple (chair), Jacqueline Gross, Alessa Hinlo, Keffy M Kehrli, and NA Sulway.

The two winners are ‘The New Mother’ by Eugene Fischer (Asimov’s, Apr/May 2015) and Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz (Candlewick Press). Congratulations to both.

After opening with award recognition – Adrift on the Sea of Rains won the BSFA Award and was shortlisted for the Sidewise Award – it’s very gratifying to see the Apollo Quartet ending with award recognition.

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/all-that-outer-space-allows-makes-tiptree-award-honor-list/feed/0iansalesjames-tiptree-jr-literary-award-councilNew Releaseshttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/new-releases/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/new-releases/#respondMon, 14 Mar 2016 11:00:33 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=472]]>After much busy-ness in the Whippleshield secret command centre, this last week has seen the release of Aphrodite Terra, an anthology of stories about Venus, in paperback, and Dreams of the Space Age, a collection of space stories by Yours Truly, in paperback and on Kindle.

Aphrodite Terra was published on Kindle in December 2015, but the plan was always to do a paperback edition. It just took me a couple of months to get it sorted. Why only Kindle for the ebook edition? Because, thanks to regulations on digital services (which includes ebooks) brought in by the EU last year, ebook sellers need to calculate the VAT rate in the buyer’s country, charge it, and then pay it to their own tax authority (HMRC, in my case) for disbursement back to the tax authority of the buyer’s nation. It is, in other words, a complete – and near-impossible – faff. The regulation, which was intended to prevent Amazon from avoiding more tax, has ended up pushing more business onto Amazon, as they have one of the few retail platforms capable of transparently handling all the VAT charges and payments. So that worked out well, then.

Anyway, Aphrodite Terra is now also available in paperback – on Amazon and the Whippleshield Books website. It contains six stories about Venus by Heidi Kneale, Erin M Hartshorn, EM Edwards, Rosie Oliver, Lorraine Schein and Deborah Walker.

Dreams of the Space Age is a collection of seven stories about the Space Race, or alternate versions of it. Six of the stories were previously published in various magazines. The topics covered include the first man in space, the first people to land on Mars, the Mercury Gemini and Apollo programmes, rocket sleds and Voyager 1. It is available in signed numbered hardback (limited to 75 copies, so get yours as soon as you can) available only from the Whippleshield Books website, paperback and on Kindle. At present, the hardback is available for pre-order here, and the paperback can be bought on Amazon (and will be available from the Whippleshield Books website when stock arrives).

So, what next for Whippleshield Books? I’ve published six books in four years, which is somewhat less than the “two to three a year” I’d originally planned. Admittedly, I had to write four of those six first. I’m not ruling out the possibility of future anthologies along the same lines as Aphrodite Terra, but for the time-being I think I’d sooner focus on novellas, short novels and single-author collections, 40,000 words tops. And science fiction only, literary science fiction, preferably hard (but if someone wants to try writing a Marxist space opera novella…). No fantasy, no horror, no steampunk. If you have something, send an enquiry to editor(at)whippleshieldbooks(dot)com. Right now, the production schedule is wide open…

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/new-releases/feed/0iansalescommand-1-960-0I1B0047-960x560Aphrodite Terra front cover 01 copyDotsa-ebook-cover-01 - smallDreams of the Space Agehttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/dreams-of-the-space-age/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/dreams-of-the-space-age/#respondWed, 30 Dec 2015 11:00:25 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=466]]>For a while now, I’ve been planning to publish a collection of my space-related stories. I had several pieces in mind for the contents (although for a couple I needed to wait until the venue I’d sold them to published them). It’s not that I set out to write a series of stories about the Space Race, but as a topic it’s long fascinated me and writing the Apollo Quartet often sparked ideas I then turned into short stories. I wanted to call my collection Memories of the Space Age, but JG Ballard beat me to it. So, instead, we have… Dreams of the Space Age.

Dreams of the Space Age will be available in signed and numbered hardback (limited to 75 copies), paperback and ebook versions. I’m hoping I’ll have copies to sell at Mancunicon – but the paperback and Kindle editions will certainly be available before the con. Dreams of the Space Age contains seven stories, and an introduction by Dave Hutchinson, author of Europe in Autumn and Europe at Midnight. The contents are:-

‘Barker’ (originally appeared in BFS Journal, Winter 2010) actually predates Adrift on the Sea of Rains. I forget what inspired it – but the title is a clue. It’s the name of an American boxer who becomes the first man in space as a result of a quick-fix project by the US. Barker, in fact, is the only named character in the story who isn’t a real person (well, neither is his trainer, Al, but he only appears in the first couple of pages).

‘Faith’ (originally appeared in The Maginot Line, The Fiction Desk, April 2012) was inspired by a dream – well, a nightmare – I’d had. I’d woken up with the image of a Mercury capsule floating alone in the middle of an ocean – and while the TV camera showed the astronaut inside it, when they opened the capsule it was empty. I’d also wanted to write about the nineteen turns mentioned by Tom Stafford in his autobiography, We Have Capture.

‘The Spaceman and the Moon Girl’ (originally appeared in Litro #137, September 2014) was more or less written to spec. The editor of Litro contacted me because the magazine was planning an issue on future fashion and my name had been suggested. I’d been posting pictures of Space Age fashion from designers such as Cardin, Courrèges and Rabanne on my blog, so I thought contrasting their clothes with a “real” Space Age garment such as the Apollo A7LB space suit might prove interesting.

‘The Incurable Irony of the Man Who Rode the Rocket Sled’ (originally appeared in The Orphan #3, July 2013) was written to submit to an anthology of railway-themed genre stories. I’d stumbled across mention of the rocket sleds used by USAF to test human beings’ response to G-forces, and found it all fascinating. However, the editor decided my story was too tenuously linked to the anthology’s theme, so I sold it to The Orphan instead. I’ve always felt this was a bit of an odd story – you have to look at it very carefully to spot it’s genre, it has no real plot, and the point of the story is carried in footnotes.

‘Far Voyager’ (originally appeared in Postscripts 32/33: Far Voyager, November 2014), I seem to recall came out of research for The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself. I based part of the 1979 Mars mission in my novella on Skylab, and it occurred to me I could send my invented spacecraft even further… At the time I was writing ‘Far Voyager’, Voyager 1 was approaching the limits of the Solar System and there was some concern about what would happen when it passed through the heliopause. I was more interested, however, in the effects on the astronaut aboard my version of Voyager (he’s not named in the story, but there are sufficient clues to figure out who he is).

‘Red Desert’ (Space – Houston, We Have a Problem, January 2016) was written in response to an invitation to an anthology. The story had to include the anthology title as a line. I’d recently watched François Ozon’s film Under The Sand, and wanted to use a similar idea in a story. Setting it on Mars seemed to fit perfectly. I was keen to capture the grandeur of the Martian landscape, but also to keep the story firmly focused on my protagonist. I think there might also be a little nod to Tiptree in the story somewhere too.

‘Our Glorious Socialist Future Among the Stars!’ (previously unpublished). Yuri Gagarin on Mars feels so obvious an alt-history space conceit, it ought to be a cliché, although the only place where I’ve seen it is in The Chimpanzee Complex, a French bande dessinée. I decided to go one better and pastiche Robinson Crusoe on Mars as well. I’d tried several venues for this story, but no one was interested – possibly because of the title, or because the dialogue is in Russian, or because it quotes from The Communist Manifesto… Shrug.

There you have it: seven stories of alternate Space Ages, from the first man in space to a Soviet landing on Mars, from ‘Twelve Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials’ to the Gee Whiz… Review copies are available from Whippleshield Books – epub, mobi, pdf. Just tweet me @ian_sales, or email sales (at) whippleshieldbooks (dot) com. I’ll be putting up pages on the Whippleshield Books website in a week or two for pre-orders.

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/dreams-of-the-space-age/feed/0iansalesDotsa-ebook-cover-01 - smallEvening Star to the right and straight on ’til morninghttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/evening-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-til-morning/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/evening-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-til-morning/#respondMon, 21 Dec 2015 11:00:45 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=458]]>Although I set up Whippleshield Books to publish the Apollo Quartet, it was never my intention it remain a self-publishing venture. I had plans, lots of plans… However, with one thing and another, Whippleshield has published for the past three and a half years works only by myself. Until now! Back in 2013, I came up with the idea of a series of short anthologies set on various of the Solar System’s celestial bodies. I picked Venus for my starting point, and put out a call for submissions. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as intended, and the book didn’t appear as planned in 2014 for Loncon3. And then other things happened… and other things… and other things… and that anthology got delayed and delayed again…

But at last! It is here! Aphrodite Terra, six stories about Venus. With contributions from Heid Kneale, Deborah Walker, EM Edwards, Lorraine Schein, Erin M Hartshorn and Rosie Oliver. Six stories inspired by Venus, about Venus, covering a variety of approaches to genre fiction.

At present, Aphrodite Terra is only available on Kindle, but a paperback edition will be launched in the New Year.

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/evening-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-til-morning/feed/0iansalesAphrodite Terra front cover 01 copyIn the Glossieshttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/in-the-glossies/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/in-the-glossies/#respondFri, 20 Nov 2015 18:17:05 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=455]]>Each month SFX, “still the world’s Number 1 sci-fi mag”, publishes a column called Book Club, in which an author writes about a science fiction novel they admire or remember fondly. Issue 268, dated January 2016, and available from 11 November 2015 (no, I can’t figure that out either), contains a Book Club about Adrift on the Sea of Rains and the Apollo Quartet. It’s by Dave Hutchinson, whose Europe in Autumn and Europe at Midnight are excellent novels (go buy them).

The rest of the magazine appears to be filled with some nonsense about an obscure film franchise. But never mind. Go and buy a copy anyway. And then buy a copy of Adrift on the Sea of Rains.

The reviewer is Karen Burnham, who is, incidentally, an electromagnetics engineer at NASA. She writes in her review, “Sales has combined an amazing amount of research and no little literary and science fictional skill into a thought-provoking and thorough look at one of the central set pieces of our modern mythology”.

I should also point out that reviews copies of the final book of the Quartet, All That Outer Space Allows, are still available. In fact, review copies of all four books are available, should anyone wish to review the entire quartet. I can do mobi, epub or pdf.

]]>https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/strange-quartet/feed/0iansales11tickertape_540x380All That Interzone Allowshttps://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/all-that-interzone-allows/
https://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/2015/08/19/all-that-interzone-allows/#respondWed, 19 Aug 2015 09:30:15 +0000http://whippleshieldbooks.wordpress.com/?p=445]]>Interzone, the UK’s best sf magazine, features a column each issue by Jonathan McCalmont, Future Interrupted, in which he writes about some aspect of science fiction. In the July/August issue, 259, McCalmont writes about the Apollo Quartet, under the title ‘All That Science Fiction Allows’. He says,

They said a lot about how self-publishing was going to change the world but the reality turned out to be a billion shades of grey and the occasional flash of colour such as that provided by Ian Sales’ magnificent and ground-breaking Apollo Quartet.

The column then goes on to discuss each of the four books individually, before finishing,

The Apollo Quartet is a tour de force. Complex, moving and technically ground-breaking…

It’s an excellent article (obviously I’d say that), and as a writer I find it fascinating, as no doubt do other writers, seeing what others find in my fiction. And I’m usually surprised there’s things I didn’t knowingly put in there I can now see are quite plainly present.